Missional Discipleship Practices, 2: Community

The call to discipleship may be received individually, but it's lived in community.

That makes some of us uncomfortable.  Our relationship with Jesus--if we have one--is personal.  What we may read in Scripture or hear in sermons or encounter in books we process asking, "What does this mean in my life?"  Faith, like so much else in our culture, is often seen as a private possession.  And because we're not always comfortable with what we think we understand about our faith, we're reluctant to put ourselves in a position where we feel compelled to share of what we know.  It might be wrong.  It might sound stupid.

Yet God always calls people--even leaders--into community.  You can pretty much search Scripture in vain for the story of an individual called by God to be alone.  And so it was with Jesus: the disciples, called individually, but called to live their discipleship in community with and for others.  And with the early church (see the book of Acts): Christians called to live and worship and serve in community.

There's good reason for this, and it has nothing to do with safety in numbers or that it's easier to remain anonymous.

• First, the Holy Spirit often speaks to us through the words and lives of others. 
• Second, living our faith with others makes accountability easier. 
• Third, communities provide support and can accomplish together what individuals alone cannot. 
• Fourth, for all our cultural emphasis on individualism, our lives tend to be organized into groups anyway (not that all groups are communities, but we are used to living our lives with others whether at work or at the gym or in the neighborhood).

So: we are called to live our relationship with Jesus integrated into a community of like-minded people, an integration that, over time, we seek to deepen.  But "community" doesn't mean just like-minded people.  It also means living with people who aren't working to follow Jesus. 

This is, partly, unavoidable.  We share our lives with people who have no apparent interest in Jesus.  But, equally, it's intentional.  Do-you-know-Jesus-Christ-as-your-Lord-and-Savior doesn't work.  In-your-face proselytizing of any kind doesn't work.  It's the kind of thing that gives Christians a bad name.  The point, in fact, is not to proselytize at all.  The point is simply to live life together, letting how we live say all we need to say about following Jesus.

And living in community doesn't necessarily mean going to church.  Not that there's anything wrong with going to church.  We should go to church.  But for too long Christians have equated "being in community" with "being in church."  Look at Jesus himself: how often did he gather with people to break bread or to teach, and how often did he gather them to go to church?  Being in church should be an outgrowth of being in community, not the other way around.

Some Scripture: Luke 5:1-11
                            Acts 2:43-47